The Seasons of Change
by ArtistictheRam
Summary: The story of Belarus and Ukraine's love growing and developing, when they were only children. Human names used. (I don't own Hetalia ,)
1. Spring

Spring

"Natalya, Katyusha come in, it's getting dark!" A worried voice shouts. We sit, at the edge of the field, the wind blowing the dandelions, allowing Katyusha and me to dance along with their powdery seeds. "Can we come outside tomorrow Katyusha?!" I shout happily, falling onto the soft fresh ground.

"Of course little sister." She smiles, setting me behind her. She holds her arm in a piggy-back stance. I get on, and she takes us to the house, skipping as she went. I laugh, kicking my heels into her sides as if she were a real horse. She neighs, laughs escaping each breath as we gallop into our small cottage.

We are welcomed by the smell of hot soup bubbling away. She puts me down on one of our thick armchairs. Ivan hops up and down in front of mother holding a bowl, demanding food. He reminds me of the small birds me and Katyusha find. Small, begging and desperate. But sweet none the less.

I give him a smile, but he turns away, seemingly scared. For some reason, he's always terrified of me. I wonder why? Possibly because I'm adopted? He probably had all of Katyusha's attention back then. But she's mine now.

I turn to Katyusha who, is trying to press the flowers we picked in our father's bible. "Katyusha! You know very well you can't play with the Holy Book!" Mother barks, bringing down her ladle onto the table.

"Sorry Mother!" Katyusha squeals then goes up the stairs. I follow her, skipping a step each pace I take. I watch her take out an enormous book on Pushkin's poetry and delicately, place the flowers we found round the back pages, winking to me as she did so.

"What happens if Mother finds out?" I ask, the idea of her bringing her stormy wrath upon Katyusha's sorry head. "Mother never reads this book. She hates Pushkin's books, she says their terribly grim. She just keeps it here for the sake of it." She smiles and takes out our flowers, one by one before leaving them on the edge of our bedroom window to dry.

Giggling, we bounce back downstairs. Mother raises her eyebrow but makes no question, and ladles out helpings of soup for each of us. Predictably, Ivan gets the most, since the doctor requested a more nutritious diet, to tend for his malnourished bones.

We settle down to eat in front of a blazing fire, as we eat our delicious soup. It's my favourite, with mushroom and leek. To finish it, we eat lingonberries which Katyusha picked the other day.

"This is a good symbol for our health children." Mother smiles as she squeezes us into a warm and tender hug. I snuggle in between Katyusha and Ivan, hoping for the warmest part of Mother's body.

We spend half an hour, playing a small game involving dice, before Mother sends us to bed. I share a bed with Katyusha, a fact that makes me smile every time I'm forced to go to bed.

As Mother blows out our candle, Katyusha, pushes me towards her already growing chest and whispers, "I love you my small, lovely Natalya." I kiss her on the lips and ask, "Will you love me forever?" She squeezes my hand. "Of course."

"Promise?"

"Promise."


	2. Summer

Summer

Mother frowns, concerned of my appearance. My hair is still tangled, no matter how much Katyusha tugs at it, attempting to make it neat and feathery like hers. My small flat heeled shoes, are scuffed and my dress out of shape.

Katyusha on the other hand, looks like one of the girls from our ornate picture books. Her dress is a gorgeous cornflower blue, setting of her pale aqua eyes. She was careful to keep her shoes shiny and clean.

"Now why can't you be like your sister?" Mother asks impatiently before helping Ivan button up his tiny suit. Admittedly, he does look adorable in it. Combined with his flustered expression, does make him look like a little male Coppelia doll. Round and chubby.

"Natalya, what have you done to your face?" Katyusha sighs before taking a hanky from her breast pocket and rubbing the crumbs of my cheek. I bat her hand away laughing, allowing her to smile before she begins rubbing, vigorously at my crumb covered face.

Before entering the church, she takes time to check her hair before smiling satisfactorily and stepping inside, clutching my hand.

I've never liked the church. It is a huge ugly place, full of damned people staring down at you from their fatal positions. I do like the angels though. I've asked Katyusha time and time again whether we could grow wings and fly away, making her laugh and give me a peck on the cheek.

We sit in our worn, wooden pew watching the crowd settle as the Priest walked towards the stand and begins his blasted sermon. Normally me and Katyusha, would joke and she would poke me in the belly button but, today she was holding onto every single word the Priest droned.

"Katyusha! Katyusha!" I whisper, my tone ferocious. Keeping her eyes on the Priest, she leans over for me to whisper into her ear. "How can you listen to all this crap!" I grin, making her gasp at my words.

"Natalya, where did you learn those words!" She scolds her hands over her heart. "The farm boys." I murmur. Frowning, she turns back to the Priest, who has begun to speak about the Holy Father.

I begin to kick the pew, bored by his teachings. The stuffy air doesn't help either. Fortunately, for my increasing temperature, Katyusha had the forethought to buy a fan before the sermon. I nudge her, gesturing at the fan she waves in front of her face. She must have forgotten our earlier incident, because she has begun to fan both of us.

"Thank you dear sister." I grin, looking up at her. She beams back down, pulling me into a hug. "When we get out of here, we'll go outside and play in the fields." She whispers into my ear. I nod in reply.

When the sermon finally finishes, I drag her out of the church, screaming for her to keep her promise. Being the honourable person she is, she fulfils it and walks me to the fields.

The rest of the day is spent bathing in the glorious sun, dancing in continuous circles until we fall down from exhaustion and Katyusha has to carry me home.


	3. Autumn

Autumn

Ivan reads the paper, his gaze calculating. I sit in the sofa, stroking Katyusha's sleeping head. She's tired from the effort she's had to use in the farms. I'm much stronger than her. We both have to help mother now, since her age has been affecting her in more than one bad way. I hope she appreciates it.

"So it is true that the Germans have declared war on Russia." He murmurs, running his hand through his hair. He does that when he's thinking. It makes me wonder if he thinks at all, since he only does this frequently. It adds years to his measly seven.

"Don't worry Ivan. They won't attack the rural areas that we live in." Mother wheezes, knitting her wool. Ivan continues to stare at her for a bit, but eventually resides back to the paper.

"Anyway, it's time for you all to be getting to bed." She says, after glancing at the ornate clock. I shake Katyusha awake, watching adoringly as her sleepy eyes open. She gives me a faint smile before placing her hand on my cheek.

"Don't worry sweet heart. No harm's going to come to us." She whispers before residing back to her original position. Just as her eyes flutter shut, Ivan begins looking at us. He knows about our relationship.

And it disgusts him.

His stare is broken when he, drops off the sofa to help Mother move closer to the radio.

"Turn it a little louder Ivan dear." She murmurs, watching him fiddle with the knobs on the strange machine. I've never liked it and never will. All it does is bring news of peoples deaths and stupid conspiracy theories such as this one. They would never attack the Motherland.

Why would anyone be so boneheaded as to strike us anyway?

Slowly, after a minute we hear the familiar rumble of static then loud voice of deceleration shouting, _Hide your children, run, run to Moscow the safest land at this tragic time..._ That's when I switched it off. Ivan glares at me, his gaze following me to the couch as I snuggle into Katyusha's soft, hay coloured.

"Please God," I whisper. "Let me have one moment of peace with the one I love."


	4. Winter

Winter

Mother is dead. Our farm has been obliterated. Ivan screams for our past, as Katyusha strokes his hair from his forehead, whispering reassurances. She won't have time for me anymore, because Ivan demands guidance. We have to find Moscow.

We'll only be safe in Moscow.

It's dark now and we need to find shelter. I push my way through deep cavernous snow. There is a path through this particular field that leads to a cave that me and Katyusha discovered. I try to hold Ivan's hand, to comfort him but he pushes me away. It's as if I'm the one who bombed our home, who burnt our farm, who killed our Mother.

As if I'm the intruder.

I finally stumble across the rocky passage that marks the entrance of the cave. It's comforting compared to the bitter snow that we have endured. Luckily, in the fire we were able to salvage the enormous deer pelt that Father left us, our only hope of warmth against the cruel, hateful cold.

Reluctantly, I wrap my arms around Ivan and allow myself to be warmed by the feeble heat that is left in him. Katyusha provides much more powerful warmth as she snuggles in, pulling the skin around us as tight as possible.

Ivan is now fast asleep, the shock and sudden heat overpowering his weakness. Katyusha was hesitant to let him rest, in fear of the possibility of never seeing his innocent purple eyes again.

"Natalya." She whispers, turning my head to face her. I forget about Ivan and fulfil the urge to throw my arms around her. She does so too but breaks away quickly.

"Listen, Natalya my love you must promise something."

"Anything for you dear Katyusha."

"You must remember, that I might not be with you and Ivan forever." I recoil at the mention of his name but manage to disguise my disgust for her sake.

"You have to promise me that you will protect Ivan and yourself, with your life. You can't die. I know you don't like Ivan, but you must promise me. I don't want anymore of us to die." Then suddenly, her head lands on my shoulder and she begins to cry.

"I don't want anyone else to die!" She screams, pressing me closer, hugging me tighter, squeezing the breath out of my exhausted lungs. I hug her back, bending so I reach a place where I am on top of her.

I kiss her. One final shot at this hopeless love. She allows me to search her, to take her away.

"And remember this my beautiful, amazing, sweet sister." She whispers, bowing her into my shoulder.

"I'll always love you, no matter what." We end the night in each others grasp.

It was only when I left with Ivan, that I realised she was truly lost from me.

 **I'm thinking of making a sequel to this... PM me if you'd like one please 3 Thanks for reading and following Katyusha and Natalya's story to the end.**


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